1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that writes an image to a display recording medium capable of displaying the image without power, by irradiating the display recording medium with image light.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a display recording medium, in addition to a paper medium and an electronic display device, attention has recently been paid to a display recording medium (also called digital paper) combining the advantage of an electronic display and that of paper.
This display recording medium has memorability in display. Therefore, it is only necessary that an image write device gives write energy to the display recording medium only when information is rewritten, and there is no need to give it any energy for maintaining the display. Accordingly, after the information is written, it is possible to separate the display recording medium from the image write device, and thus it is possible, like the paper medium, to readily carry it about and read the information with a plurality of the display recording media stacked one on another, placed side by side, or carried in hand.
As the display recording medium having memorability, there are known a light write type display recording medium into which an image is visibly and erasably stored by light irradiation and voltage application, and an image write device that writes an image to this display recording medium (e.g., see JP-A-2001-301233 ([0031] to [0043] and FIGS. 1 and 2)).
In this display recording medium described in Patent Document 1, a liquid crystal layer and a photoconductive layer that varies in resistance value under light irradiation are laminated to each other between a pair of transparent electrodes. Besides, the image write device that writes an image to the display recording medium is configured as follows. That is, the photoconductive layer of the display recording medium is irradiated with a two-dimensional light pattern via a two-dimensional microlens array from an LCD (liquid crystal display) panel so that the light pattern is focused onto the photoconductive layer. A resistance distribution based on the light pattern is thus generated in the photoconductive layer. A voltage is then applied between the transparent electrodes via receiving ends, thereby applying to the liquid crystal layer a voltage distribution based on the resistance distribution of the photoconductive layer. An image responsive to the voltage distribution is thus recorded on the liquid crystal layer.
According to the image write device of the light write type display recording medium, printing is enabled by exposing image information in a planar fashion while applying a voltage to the entire pair of electrodes. Therefore, this makes it possible to write large-capacity image information at high speed as compared with line exposure and scan exposure.